The iPhone 7 had been rumored to be dropping the analog 3.5 mm headphone jack, in favour of wireless Bluetooth or Lightning cable headphones for audio output. However, a new iPhone 7 component leak posted on Weibo disagrees with previous reports, depicting a board that includes a 3.5mm jack (in the top right of the photo above).
The 3.5mm jack is large (relative to the thinness of the phone), dates back more than a hundred years and has been superseded in terms of signal quality by the modern digital solutions, so it is plausible that Apple would want to abandon it. However, the idea of removing the port has been controversial (with complaints about existing accessory compatibility). This Chinese leak indicates it is sticking around …
The pictured board is sized for a 4.7 inch sized iPhone (and an equivalent version for the 5.5 inch phone has not surfaced) so there’s a possibility the 3.5mm jack will stay on the smaller sized phone but be dropped on the Plus models. This strategy does not sound very ‘Appley’ — it makes more sense for it to deprecate technologies consistently across the lineup.
It seems to be an iPhone part of sorts, with similar layout to the equivalent part in the iPhone 6s. As this Weibo poster does not have a track record of accuracy, there is another alternative explanation. There is a decent likelihood that the pictured part is for an iPhone clone, not designated for an official Apple product. iPhone clones are big business in China and errant parts often get misinterpreted as components for as-yet-unreleased Apple hardware.
Current expectations foretell the iPhone 7 being a small update over the current iPhone 6s, with a 1mm thinner body and a redesigned back with streamlined antenna lines. The iPhone 7 Pro is expected to feature a dual-camera on the rear for better quality photos and videos. The device is also expected to be waterproof and dustproof. A more fully-fledged external design revamp is currently pegged for 2017, with reports claiming the ‘iPhone 8’ will feature an all-glass chassis.
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I have a feeling we may see more of an iPhone 6se and a dramatic new phone next year for the 10th anniversary
That’s what I’m thinking; their radical new AMOLED-based design isn’t ready for 2016, so instead of having another two-year tick-tock with the typical bezels and no AMOLED display (which I think would really start to hurt) they extend the basic iPhone 6 design into a third generation so they can get the new design out in 2017 instead of having to wait until 2018. This will also probably allow them time to take a breather and improve things like battery life before the next generation of thinnovation comes. Given all this, I do think it would make sense not to ditch the headphone jack until the supposed radical redesign next year; indeed, it seems part of Apple’s style that the abandonment of legacy technology comes hand-in-hand with cutting-edge new design.
And include lightning EarPods this year to begin the transition
Please please please let this be true! I’ve been waiting to get a new iPhone since 2012.
How does this have any bearing on why you haven’t upgraded your phone in 4 years?
I just meant that I skipped getting the iPhone 6 to wait for the iPhone 7 and I would hate it if the iPhone 7 didn’t have a headphone jack.
IMO they should keep the port this round BUT to ease the transition to no 3.5mm jack, they should start shipping lightning EarPods with all their iOS devices.
They should have done that a long time ago I think. The iPhone 6 should have shipped with lightning Earpods, same for the 6S and then kill the jack with iPhone 7.
I completely agree .. Imagine they launched iPhone 6 back in 2014 with lightning EarPods, the amount of forecasting would have made manufacturers more prepared, not to mention the general public.
I’m amazed somebody even uses apple earpods.
They’re great and come in the box, and better aren’t a lot better. 95% use them at least.
Why not? You’re paying for them.
I am a person who likes buying earphones/headphones from other brands, but when it comes to using with iPhone/iPad, I use Apple Earpods. It’s a very good pair of earphones in my opinion. :)
If you have a good alternative (that isn’t “in-ear”, they’re painful for me), I’m uh, all ears. I’ve been looking for a viable alternative for ages, but anything I’ve tried has been sub-par.
Why? They sound pretty great for free, and are the most comfortable out there, and allow you to hear your environment.
I was about to right the same thing lol.
The EarPods that came with my iPhone 5s are perhaps the best earphones I have ever owned (never been convinced into paying AU$100~ on decent earphones), but I agree that if Apple wants to kill the 3.5mm headphone jack, they should try and do this as a slow transition, starting this year with lightning EarPods bundled with iOS devices.
Makes you wonder what will happen when it comes to removing the 3.5mm jack on Macs?
Would Apple then make it possible to plug-in Lightning cabled earphones into the Apple TV’s Siri Remote, to listen through earphones instead of TV speakers, even though you can do this with Bluetooth Headphones already?
It also raises the question as to how much better the lightning cabled earphones would sound compared to 3.5mm earphones and if they would implement anything like a Digital Audio Converter (DAC) for Lightning cables like HTC did for the headphone jack on the HTC 10.
It’s starting to sound like the 2016 iPhone (not sure if they’ll call it the 7) will just be a better iPhone 6s, with the 2017 iPhone having the major redesign, integrated fingerprint sensor into the display which can lead to less screen bezel, and perhaps maybe another major feature like long-distance wireless charging.
The lightning audio via the Siri remote is quite an interesting idea. It’s an alternative to those who don’t have Bluetooth headphones. Albeit more practical if Apple again was already shipping lightning EarPods lol. But I find that idea extremely interesting.
Please tell me this isn’t true. I so want the jack port, sim card tray and home button (and so also the bezels) to vanish. :(
Please let this be an iPhone 6S component and someone is just trying to troll with this photo.
Everything’s pointing to a minimal upgrade this year, big upgrade coming next year :(
You could get all those wishes this summer minus reduced bezels.
LG has a fingerprint sensor under the bottom bezel that would remove the home bottom and make the front glass smooth.
Plenty of rumors of and leaks of no home button have been around.
The SIM card could go, but the carriers will be fighting it. It might be like the new 9,7 iPads and have both embedded sim and a physical sim.
I don’t get why carriers would want to prevent the SIM card being abandoned. It’s not like it would mean less income for them will it? I even think carriers will end up saving money because in Europe, the sim card is free when you subscribe to a plan or just take prepaid so it means the carrier pays for them. It’s not a lot of money but still.
I think killing the sim card only comes with benefits.
– It will be yet another component which doesn’t need to be included in future smartphones, tablets, notebooks with cellular, etc.
– It will save tons of plastic and chips better for the environment
– It will save carriers money
– It will allow people to use multiple sims in more smartphones
applegetridofsimandjack: Carriers don’t people to be able to switch. Just look at what AT&T does with Apple SIM in iPad – if you use it with AT&T, it’s locked. Other carriers allow it to switch, but not AT&T.
So having a built-in SIM is somewhat risky if carriers can lock it. OTOH, if Apple builds it so it can NOT be locked, I’m all for it.
>superseded in terms of signal quality by the modern digital solutions
facepalm
facepalm what?
Good to see someone else here understanding the ridiculousness of some of these comments. Evidently their ears hear music in digital 1s and 0s!
Just goes to show that none of these rumors is worth a cr@p.
Yes they are, just not the obviously fake ones. It’s gone.
YES!!!! I was dreading that the headphone jack would disappear. I stopped buying Macs when they ditched the floppy because of all my archives. Do you have any idea how many floppies it takes to store 4TBs of data! ;)
It is gone, hate to tell you, actually, no, love to tell you. Of all the leaks thus far, this is by far the most unbelievable. Numerous leaks have purported it will be gone, and it will be. Not just on the Plus or embarrassing Pro model, on all models, of course. The fact that the writer suggests it only being removed on certain models….hah yeah, no. That would be brilliant if Apple, lets alienate our customer base as much as we possibly can.
You do have a lot of statements on what exactly is on the Apple roadmap. I see this all the time on the comments you make stating how much more you know than everyone else about what the future holds. I wish we all had the personal conversations that you do with the Apple Executive Team and Board of Directors.
@Chris I’m only basing that off of numerous rumors, as well as schematic leaks of both 4.7″ and 5.5″ phones. The schematic leak of the 4.7″ shows it is gone, the schematic leak of the 5.5″ or ‘iPhone Pro’ shows it is gone. And a leak without a microphone beside the headphone jack is real? I think not. Yes, look for the microphone and show me where that is on that leak.
changing the 3.5mm jack with a “usb-c” is like if….all the gas stations use a rounded nozzle…but apple create a car with a Pentalobe nozzle…
what the hell?
even if you use apple EarPods, this doesn’t mean that all the other customers should be obliged to buy “adapters” or new instruments pursuing this nonsense.
( I will laugh in the face of the first who will talk about bluetooth )
yeah let’s keep the same technology forever. Brilliant. This is why intelligent people change the world and the rest just complain about inevitable change.
You analogy about Apple Car using proprietary nozzle could ring way more true than you think! LOL! Lock you into using Apple Stores as your only option to charge the Apple Car…..that is right up their playbook!
Even more revolutionary than we thought!
The 3.5mm audio jack should be replaced with a fully digital port eventually, but we are not ready yet.
Why are we not ready yet? The phones are getting thinner and smaller and the space the anienxt phone jack takes could be used for many other things.
Also can have built in DAC that is way better then the crappy analog CD sound quality you get from 3.5 mm headphones.
Analog CD sound?? When did CDs stop being a digital medium??
You do get that a DAC is a digital-to analog-converter? So regardless of whether the DAC is in the phone preceding a 3.5mm jack, or miniaturised in pair of headphones… at some point the signal is always converted to analog… unless of course your ears have evolved to interpret 1s and 0s??
You can still listen to hi-res audio through headphones plugged into a 3.5mm output.
The iPhone 7 will be great and also horrible and will have a headphone jack but also not have a headphone jack and people will buy it but also not buy it, PS Apple is doomed.
Give me lightning EarPods in the box and I’m done with the headphone jack. And if you don’t give me lightning EarPods then I’ll invest in some Bluetooth headphones. But the headphone jack has to go. Debris get stuck in there, the damn thing is outdated, and the space it’s using up should be allocated to something else like another speaker for stereo sound.
Apple and manufactures have had the ability to produce lightning headphones under MFI for years and are less then 5 products on the market.
I would rather Apple go to USB-C, because the MFI program sucks and finding a good pair of headphones will be hard to do based on the current state of MFI.
The 3.5 mm jack is still there in the iPod Touch, and that’s already thinner than iPhone. No-one has yet proposed a solid reason for it to go away.
I JUST WANT A BETTER BATTERY, APPLE. IS THAT TOO HARD TO ASK?
Earphones are not the only devices that plug into that jack. Several companies besides Apple are heavily invested in devices the use the earphone jack on iPhones. Apple is aware of these investments because they mean greater consumer coverage. AND it’s impossible to imagine trying to use the current iPhone battery more than a few hours for streaming without using the lightening port to plug into juice. So, some very new and upgraded technology for battery life AND/OR charging while streaming is going to have to show up before Apple consumers (like me) will be switching over to an iPhone without earphone jack.